Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 12/13

murpho999

No doubt there will be posts now saying:

Squad is not deep enough (half didn't play)

System isn't working and passing was poor(2nd game with new system)

Rodger's was poor (2nd game for him too).

telekon

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

I hope it does, he played very well tonight, sick to the teeth of the totally uncalled for criticism of Adam. He is a far better player than he is given credit for but running him down is the "cool" thing to do in this thread it appears.

He did, but the fact remains he was goddamn awful last season when it mattered in competitive matches.

There's also no excuse for a professional footballer to have an arse that big in modern day football.

Sign of a lack of discipline in the dietary stakes.

delw

murpho999 wrote: »

Squad is not deep enough

System isn't working and passing was poor

Rodger's was poor.

Well said murpho :D

Gbear

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

I hope it does, he played very well tonight, sick to the teeth of the totally uncalled for criticism of Adam. He is a far better player than he is given credit for but running him down is the "cool" thing to do in this thread it appears.

I think it's the nature of the way Adam ****s things up. When he makes a mistake it's inevitably infuriating by it's sheer stupidity.

He's very good technically.
If Rodgers gives him a very clearly defined role and he keeps it simple he could be a decent squad player.

telekon

telekon wrote: »

He did, but the fact remains he was goddamn awful last season when it mattered in competitive matches.

This is simply not true, when Lucas was fit he was in excellent form, putting in man of the match performances. When Lucas got injured he had to play a role which doesn't suit him so yes then he did put in some poor performances.

Also there is no requirement to be wafer thin to play football, its nonsense. Adam was often the player with most ground covered for us last season which show fitness is not an issue.

Chucky the tree

Gbear wrote: »

I think it's the nature of the way Adam ****s things up. When he makes a mistake it's inevitably infuriating by it's sheer stupidity.

He's very good technically.
If Rodgers gives him a very clearly defined role and he keeps it simple he could be a decent squad player.

Fingers crossed it's "sign for another team".

telekon

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

This is simply not true, when Lucas was fit he was in excellent form, putting in man of the match performances. When Lucas got injured he had to play a role which doesn't suit him so yes then he did put in some poor performances.

Interesting fact: Charlie Adam has never won a man of the match award for Liverpool.

telekon

telekon wrote: »

Interesting fact: Charlie Adam has never won a man of the match award for Liverpool.

There were plenty of games when he was well up there go back through a few old match threads if you wish I couldn't bothered.


Personally I like Adam, his passing style is a joy to watch

Nuri Sahin

People need to take a chill pill. Roma had a strong team out.

Impressed yet again with Pacheco (that wayward cross aside) and especially Shelvey.
Sterling, Lucas and the RB whose name I cannot remember all of a sudden, were decent in spells too. Squirmed big time when Lucas went into the challenge with Bradley. Cole played well, which is good as it means someone might try and sign him. Good finish from Adam and good spot by Pacheco to tee him up, was fully expecting him to try and find that top corner.

Oh, and Lamela was a joy to watch for Roma as was expected. I'm such a fan Forgot Bradley played for Villa!

murpho999

Good to see Raheem, the family man, who brought some of his kids to the US

telekon

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

There were plenty of games when he was well up there go back through a few old match threads if you wish I couldn't bothered.

Personally I like Adam, his passing style is a joy to watch.

I think that's the thing that bugged me most about him last season (besides the set pieces) was the superman 40 yard pingers which rarely came off, especially when the simple ball was on. So infuriating watching him just pass it back to the opposition.

In fairness to him, he has been pretty accurate with them the last 2 friendlies. Don't know if they suit the tika taka mantra though.

Chucky the tree

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

This is simply not true, when Lucas was fit he was in excellent form, putting in man of the match performances. When Lucas got injured he had to play a role which doesn't suit him so yes then he did put in some poor performances.

Also there is no requirement to be wafer thin to play football, its nonsense. Adam was often the player with most ground covered for us last season which show fitness is not an issue.

When Lucas was injured it meant Charlie Adam actually had to do some work - as you say though it's a situation which doesn't suit him.

PFL

Boring game for the first 30 mins then livened up. Positives and negatives to be taken from it;

POSITIVES

Pacheco
Shelvey - great game
Sterling - threatened down the wing
Ryan Mc Loughlin - looks a great prospect
Adam (played well)
Cole (Looked like a man looking to fight for his place)
Lucas (more mins notched up)
Aqua (not bad)

NEGATIVES

Enrique - looks like a man back at work after two weeks on the piss in Ibiza, stunk the place up, mile of the pace.

Carra - he just not able for it anymore

The system - while we will stick with it, it's going take a massive readjustment to build confidence in our game. Still nothing to be worried about yet, onwards to Spurs on Saturday.

Sir Gallagher

telekon wrote: »

He did, but the fact remains he was goddamn awful last season when it mattered in competitive matches.

There's also no excuse for a professional footballer to have an arse that big in modern day football.

Sign of a lack of discipline in the dietary stakes.

John Barnes had the biggest ghetto booty in football and he was tops :pac:

Anyway, i enjoyed that game much more than i did the last one anyway. Shelvey was great and Pacheco seems to still seems to be up for staking a claim in this squad which is fantastic as i think we we all had kind of given up on him making it last season.

The new "system" will take time hopefully not too long though.

I have my concerns in general about what we're doing in the transfer market, i had hoped we'd have most of our business done by now. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes but im getting flashbacks of last summer where we basically set out our stall regarding what players we wanted and told each club to name there price. I can see us paying through the nose for Allen and Dempsey who are good players but for the money being mentioned surely we could get better value.

Fingers crossed this Borini lad hits the ground running and Suarez and Gerrard are on top form because the start of this season is going to be tough considering the fixtures and adjusting to the "system".

Chucky the tree

Chucky the tree wrote: »

When Lucas was injured it meant Charlie Adam actually had to do some work - as you say though it's a situation which doesn't suit him.

No it meant he couldn't concentrate on attacking and passing which are his strengths as he had to sit deeper and spend a lot of time trying to defend which isn't his strong point.

The whole point of having a player like Lucas is to free up a player like Adam to play his own game, not bull like saying he had to work. As I said before game in game out last season Adam was our player with the most ground covered which shows a very high work rate.

Plenty of midfielders are not the best at defending but that's ok, its not ok for Adam though as people just have it in for him.

Chucky the tree

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

No it meant he couldn't concentrate on attacking and passing which are his strengths as he had to sit deeper and spend a lot of time trying to defend which isn't his strong point.

The whole point of having a player like Lucas is to free up a player like Adam to play his own game, not bull like saying he had to work. As I said before game in game out last season Adam was our player with the most ground covered which shows a very high work rate.

Plenty of midfielders are not the best at defending but that's ok, its not ok for Adam though as people just have it in for him.

The problem is he's not even very good at his strengthens. Even with Lucas in the team Adam wasn't some creative/attacking genius. He was fairly ordinary. I'd be very surprised if he was a player who covered the most ground when Lucas was in the team.

murpho999

telekon wrote: »

He did, but the fact remains he was goddamn awful last season when it mattered in competitive matches.

There's also no excuse for a professional footballer to have an arse that big in modern day football.

Sign of a lack of discipline in the dietary stakes.

Whatever about his ability and performances last season: I just don't get the slagging over his weight.

See Below.



Think he looks fine and would love to see a 'fat' picture.

rossc007

murpho999 wrote: »

Whatever about his ability and performances last season: I just don't get the slagging over his weight.

See Below.



Think he looks fine and would love to see a 'fat' picture.

King Kenny was well noted for his big arse, Clough said it made him harder to knock off the ball. Don't see Adam as being fat, urban myth if you ask me.

Sir Gallagher

I don't know lads he has the touch of the Desperate Dan about him.

cson

PFL wrote: »

Carra - he just not able for it anymore

Been the case for a couple of years now from what I've seen of him play.

Jesus Wept

I've seen him looking over weight before.

retalivity

i know its only pre season but....
im happy to see the likes of pacheco, sterling, suso, eccleston & morgan being given a chance.
For the past 10 years or so there's been far too big a disconnect between the first team and reserves/u21s.
Hopefully some can step up to become decent squad players or better, and others we can ship out for a reasonable fee.

corcaigh07

telekon wrote: »

Interesting fact: Charlie Adam has never won a man of the match award for Liverpool.

think you might be wrong there or at least overly keen to state that fact. He was definitely most people's MOTM choice for Chelsea away last year and in general, looked fairly solid with Lucas beside him.

Yakult

Mackenzie Immense Custodian wrote: »

Chucky the tree wrote: »

When Lucas was injured it meant Charlie Adam actually had to do some work - as you say though it's a situation which doesn't suit him.

No it meant he couldn't concentrate on attacking and passing which are his strengths as he had to sit deeper and spend a lot of time trying to defend which isn't his strong point.

The whole point of having a player like Lucas is to free up a player like Adam to play his own game, not bull like saying he had to work. As I said before game in game out last season Adam was our player with the most ground covered which shows a very high work rate.

Plenty of midfielders are not the best at defending but that's ok, its not ok for Adam though as people just have it in for him.

I will admit to hating Adam from time to time but the above pretty much summed it up. He was exposed badly when he lost Lucas and then Spearing was the replacement, not good enough and thats why I'm wondering why we havent signed a better player than Spearing.

whatawaster

Last night was played with a good intensity, exactly what we need with a competitive match next week. We should start against Spurs with the team we hope to play in Europe and give those players at least 60 minutes

Jones
McLaughlin
Skrtel
Carragher
Enrique (though he was ***** last night)
Spearing
Shelvey
Adam
Pacheco
Sterling
Ecclestone

would be my side. I'd possibly slot Suso in for Adam, but might be better to use him from the bench

Borini, Agger and English lads will probably not play

hefferboi

I'd go for Suso instead of Adam and Robinson for ricky.

Leiva

Early start so wrecked this morning after watching the meh game.

Leiva

See this is what I am on about ...

@guardian_sport: Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany signs new six-year contract http://t.co/LvCOhdZA via @guardian #mcfc

We should be doing the same . Identify your star players (especially defenders) and reward and tie them down on long contracts.

I would love to hear similar news on Skittles, Agger etc injuries or not .

Too much talk about expensive unproven additions when we really should be identifying our core players and solidify the squad for years to come.

Dickerty

All of our key players have at least 2 years left. We are apparently talking to Skrtel and Suarez about new deals. It's a lot easier to tie down the Man City captain after they just won the title and they will always match his ambitions.

Lucas - 2015
Stevie - 2014
Agger - 2014
Reina - 2016

Luckycharms_74

I have the match recorded from last night so maybe I will watch some of it later. By all accounts from those who watched the game the following had good games (Shelvey, Sterling, Cole). I think Shelvey will be a beast of a player in the near future. I also think he will be a part of England's midfield for many years if he keeps progressing as he is. He looks to have put on some beef over the summer. I really hope we don't loan him out as I think he can be play a BIG part for us this season under BR. We were a bit short upfront but we still have Suarez, Borini & maybe Bellers to come in as well. I still think we do need another striker and also a bench man who can replace Maxi/Kuyt role. I think Cole can surprise a few of the doubters including myself in that. When he wants top play and is fit he can be a game changer. Anyways roll on Spurs and the European game next week & we will see what is close to our starting 11 for the West Brom game.

Highlights from last nights game

Dickerty

Contrasting pics of James Bond meeting the team -



Agger - "I could totally take you..."



Flanno - "Please don't kill me!!"

hefferboi

Dickerty wrote: »

All of our key players have at least 2 years left. We are apparently talking to Skrtel and Suarez about new deals. It's a lot easier to tie down the Man City captain after they just won the title and they will always match his ambitions.

Lucas - 2015
Stevie - 2014
Agger - 2014
Reina - 2016

I'd tie up Lucas, Agger, Shelvey, Kelly, Suso and Sterling to long term deals and Johnson and Skrtel to short add ons if they're not sold this summer.

Dickerty

hefferboi wrote: »

I'd tie up Lucas, Agger, Shelvey, Kelly, Suso and Sterling to long term deals and Johnson and Skrtel to short add ons if they're not sold this summer.

Suso is a concern, I think he is starting his last year, we need to get that done quickly. Like today.

I don't see any suggestion that Johnson will be going anywhere, he's good until 2015 anyway. Shelvey until 2017, Kelly until 2014.

Kelly needs to make himself into a CB, for me. He's not mobile or attacking enough to be a RB in this side, but he could be a beast of a CB.

hefferboi

Dickerty wrote: »

Suso is a concern, I think he is starting his last year, we need to get that done quickly. Like today.

I don't see any suggestion that Johnson will be going anywhere, he's good until 2015 anyway. Shelvey until 2017, Kelly until 2014.

Kelly needs to make himself into a CB, for me. He's not mobile or attacking enough to be a RB in this side, but he could be a beast of a CB.

I didn't know any of the contracts only that Suso's was up this year. I'd be sick if we lost him to another pl club for nothing.

I agree with Kelly needing to play CB. He's big and strong seems like he'd be ideal beside Agger in a year or two. Hopefully anyway.

NEDDURC

whatawaster wrote: »

Last night was played with a good intensity, exactly what we need with a competitive match next week. We should start against Spurs with the team we hope to play in Europe and give those players at least 60 minutes

Jones
McLaughlin
Skrtel
Carragher
Enrique (though he was ***** last night)
Spearing
Shelvey
Adam
Pacheco
Sterling
Ecclestone

would be my side. I'd possibly slot Suso in for Adam, but might be better to use him from the bench

Borini, Agger and English lads will probably not play

I'd hope the players who just returned to the squad will get a run out in the Spurs game. Especially Borini, Kelly, Downing who didn't play at the euros and should be pretty fresh. Agger also as he's been back an extra few days than the others.

I think the manger should pick a stronger team for the spurs game and give them 60mins - then bring on some of the other players for a run out.


Jones
Kelly
Skrtel
Agger
Enrique
Aquilani
Shelvey
Spearing
Cole
Downing
Borini

gafferino

Brendan Rodgers is considering giving some of his international stars their first pre-season appearances against Tottenham on Saturday.

His six England players and new signing Fabio Borini sat out Wednesday's 2-1 defeat to Roma at Fenway Park having joined the squad just this week.

However, they could feature against Spurs in Baltimore for the club's final game in North America.

"We've got a tough session in the morning for the players who have just arrived," Rodgers told reporters after the Roma defeat.



"In the next couple of days we'll assess it. There are certainly going to be some of those guys involved. It's thinking towards the Europa League game next week.

"A number of those guys will come in and start to get involved."

One player who did feature against Roma is Alberto Aquilani, currently with the squad after two full seasons on loan in Serie A.

Asked whether he would remain at Liverpool during 2012-13, Rodgers replied: "That remains to be seen. I need to have a close look at Alberto. It's been difficult for him during his time in England, and this is probably the first period where he's felt happy, according to him, and he's working.

"I need to assess, and that's what I'm doing at the moment. Come the beginning of the season I hope to have a group that I'd like to go forward with on our journey this season. I'm assessing all the players, young and senior, at the moment."

Meanwhile, despite losing our latest friendly 2-1, Rodgers took many positives from the game.

He praised the build-up to Charlie Adam's strike, which followed goals from Michael Bradley and Alessandro Florenzi.

The boss also had kind words to say about Lucas Leiva and his side's tactical approach to the game.

"I was really pleased with tonight," he said. "There were lots of real positives from the game. Roma are ahead of us in terms of games - they've played four or five more than ourselves.

"We actually created a lot of chances, and once we get that wee bit fitter and introduce our top players, I'll be very hopeful for the future.

"The pressing from the front was very, very good, the goal we scored was excellent, and we'll improve our defending from the goals. We defended poorly on those.

"It was a well worked goal. We showed patience and moved it quickly from one side of the pitch to the other. Daniel Pacheco played a great ball when I thought he was going to work space to shoot. It was a perfect pass so Charlie could hit it first time.

"The structure of our game was good. That's important for me at the moment, that tactical idea, because when we introduce a lot of our quality players back into the group you'll see that extra step up in the midfield and final third.

"I thought Lucas was fantastic when he came on. Some of his passing and quality.

"There were also lots of young players gaining invaluable experience against top players like Bojan and Totti. That's going to help them going forward.

"Young Ryan McLaughlin playing at right-back, his first game, a fantastic experience for him playing against Totti, a legend of the game."

The Reds will depart Boston for Baltimore on Friday morning - and Rodgers believes his players will never forget the day they played in front of a capacity 37,000 fans at the home of the Boston Red Sox.

"It was incredible," he said. "I'd like to go on record to say a big thank-you to the people of Boston. We've got one more day here before we fly away on Friday, and it's been absolutely magnificent.

"The hospitality we've received here, and to climax it by playing at an incredible stadium...

"I told the players before the game, 'When you're 50-odd you'll be able to tell your grandkids that you played football at Fenway Park.' That's something that'll stay with them."

gafferino

Liverpool owner John W Henry says he would still have sacked Kenny Dalglish even if the manager had led the Reds to FA Cup success.

Anfield legend Dalglish was shown the door by the club four days after the Reds came in eighth in the Premier League - their worst finish since 1994.

Suggestions have been raised that the manager might have survived the axe had he followed up Liverpool's Carling Cup success with another Wembley triumph in the FA Cup, where they lost out to Chelsea in the final.

But Henry, frontman of Reds owners Fenway Sports Group, says the trophy would not have saved the 61-year-old Scot.

He said: "The FA Cup would not have made any difference had he won it, no, no.

"For us we were 17th over the second half of the season and Liverpool should not be in that position.

"I don't place the blame on Kenny and assistant Steve Clarke but I think it was obvious to every fan that something was wrong and something needed to be done."

Short-term

Henry admits Dalglish, who was in the role for 18 months after replacing England boss Roy Hodgson at the helm and has been succeeded by Brendan Rodgers, was only ever going to be a short-term solution.

He added: "When I first discussed making a change before he took the job, we danced around it and discussed what role he would take at some point.

"He did say that if it was the manager's job, he would only do it until we had the right young man to come in for the long term. We spoke two or three times before he actually took the job.

"Kenny was always saying no one man is bigger than the club. Everyone knows what it meant when he came back, how he did right the ship and brought all the disparate elements back together.

"There were a lot of different directions and he unified the club internally and externally - he did an incredible job of getting us all on the same page."

DDC1990

Pacheco was class last night. Really impressed and hope he can make an impact this year.

Still really light, and bowled over easily, but has an amazing turn of pace, quick feet and is unselfish as we saw with his assist for Adam.

Cole impressed me as well except for his finish, worked hard and did well.

Enrique was way off the pace.

Shelvey was anonymousn for the first 25 minutes and then came to life for the last 20, was really good. Same with Aquliani, really simple football but stood out for me in terms of his composure on the ball. Never paniced.

Lucas still has a long way to go, but put in a good effort. Spearing was a bit out of his depth I felt. Never looked comfortable with the Tiki-Taka style.

Suso mixed the good with the bad, and Sterling was quiet enough, but showed his class creating a great chance for Shelvey.

Gulascli made some great saves, but obviously didn't get the Tiki-Taka memo and too often just bombed the ball forward. Jones was beaten by 2 very good goals, possibly could have done more for the Bradley chance, which slipped by him.

None of the young forwards looked threatening, Ecclestone, Adorjan or Morgan, though I was impressed when the latter got on the ball in the first part of the second half.

Looked shakey defensively no matter what the combo, with Enrique and McLoughlin leaving a lot of space in the first half. McLoughlin was class on the ball and got forward really well however, and it looks like he has a bright future.

Overally, I was impressed with our style of football. Really smooth, kept possession well and looked comfortable. However, just like all the other years, we really lack that extra kick up front. Hopefully, Borini, Suarez and Carroll can bring that into the side.

Kerrigooney

gafferino wrote: »

Liverpool owner John W Henry says he would still have sacked Kenny Dalglish even if the manager had led the Reds to FA Cup success.

Anfield legend Dalglish was shown the door by the club four days after the Reds came in eighth in the Premier League - their worst finish since 1994.

Suggestions have been raised that the manager might have survived the axe had he followed up Liverpool's Carling Cup success with another Wembley triumph in the FA Cup, where they lost out to Chelsea in the final.

But Henry, frontman of Reds owners Fenway Sports Group, says the trophy would not have saved the 61-year-old Scot.

He said: "The FA Cup would not have made any difference had he won it, no, no.

"For us we were 17th over the second half of the season and Liverpool should not be in that position.

"I don't place the blame on Kenny and assistant Steve Clarke but I think it was obvious to every fan that something was wrong and something needed to be done."

Short-term

Henry admits Dalglish, who was in the role for 18 months after replacing England boss Roy Hodgson at the helm and has been succeeded by Brendan Rodgers, was only ever going to be a short-term solution.

He added: "When I first discussed making a change before he took the job, we danced around it and discussed what role he would take at some point.

"He did say that if it was the manager's job, he would only do it until we had the right young man to come in for the long term. We spoke two or three times before he actually took the job.

"Kenny was always saying no one man is bigger than the club. Everyone knows what it meant when he came back, how he did right the ship and brought all the disparate elements back together.

"There were a lot of different directions and he unified the club internally and externally - he did an incredible job of getting us all on the same page."

Lloyd is gonna blow a gasket.

I think I`ll get some popcorn...

gafferino

ha ha yeah thats what i thought too!!

missingtime

Shopping list:

1 x AM/CM (2 if Aquilani is sold)
1 x FW (2 if Carroll is sold)
1 x LWF
1 x DM/CM
1 x LB

I think Dempsey will be our LWF and Allen will be our DM/CM; that leaves us with another 3, possibly 5, players to get. The only thing I can think of is that Rodgers thinks that some of these positions might be filled in with Shelvey or Pacheco et al. Or that he is keeping his cards close to his chest when it comes to our targets. IMO without improvement on these positions it will probably be another season without CL.

SlickRic

there's nothing really there in Henry's interview that should really be of surprise to everyone.

we knew Kenny was a short term plan.
we knew Kenny was a believer that nobody is bigger than the club.
we thought a younger manager was needed for the long term.

the only thing we maybe didn't know was that Kenny would've been sacked regardless of the FA Cup.

meh.

Donnielighto

amiable wrote: »

Great contribution

in fairness it is pretty solid, better than the average club scout id wager

amiable

Donnielighto wrote: »

in fairness it is pretty solid, better than the average club scout id wager

How so?

Donnielighto

amiable wrote: »

How so?

advance it a few years, it tends to have the potential for players well researched, clearly not all but still a lot.

ever play it and then some random "wonderkid" who turns out to be unreal in real life. Or an understated player who becomes class.

LuckyLloyd

Kerrigooney wrote: »

Lloyd is gonna blow a gasket.

I think I`ll get some popcorn...

I'll just repeat something I said last week: Henry really should shut the **** up more imo. I don't see the advantage to such interviews, they just strike me as him creating a stick the media can beat him with if Rodgers comes under pressure down the line...

ush

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I'll just repeat something I said last week: Henry really should shut the **** up more imo. I don't see the advantage to such interviews, they just strike me as him creating a stick the media can beat him with if Rodgers comes under pressure down the line...

Better Henry setting himself up for a beating, than creating a situation where people nearer the field of play are needlessly put under the spotlight by his statements.

LuckyLloyd

ush wrote: »

Better Henry setting himself up for a beating, than creating a situation where people nearer the field of play are needlessly put under the spotlight by his statements.

But they'll be put under the spotlight anyway if things don't go well.

Did Henry's statements in advance of last season about how CL is the target really help anyone when the pressure came? By all means Henry should set very clear objectives of all staff at the club (including players) internally, and speaking in a direct fashion behind closed doors would be a big advantage to any organisation. But no-one has coherantly argued for why such statements to the media aid the cause of the manager and team.

He isn't obliged to make such statements so why bother?

Mr Alan

Sounds to me that if we have a repeat of last season this season, Rodgers will be on his way. Madness.

mike65

I'm sure he will be, its the fate of every manager bar the chosen few.